


The Holly and the Ivy

by Crustybreadcube



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2020-10-10 17:49:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20532089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crustybreadcube/pseuds/Crustybreadcube
Summary: OC goes to Hogwarts and becomes friends with the Marauders. Basically just the story of her life, going from first year at Hogwarts to the end of the 7th book, and how she interacts with the boys and events that happen. (To be clear the warning is for canon character deaths) Right now my plan is to finish the entire fanfiction before I update this anymore, so there probably won't be updates for a while but I'm not abandoning this! I just want to be able to edit the whole thing in case I change my mind about a huge plot thing.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for very specific self-indulgent reasons so it literally might only appeal to me but I feel like publishing it is the next step for me to increase my confidence. Also I'm not done with it yet so some things might happen later that I haven't tagged (ie I haven't figured out all the relationships that are going to be in it). Also I know they all talk like Americans from 2019 but I thought it would sound much worse if I tried to use British slang bc I'm not British. Anyways basically feel free to give me criticism but certain things are like that on purpose. (Also I know I don't have to put so many disclaimers about my work since I literally only wrote it for myself but I feel like I have to explain certain things).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly begins her years at Hogwarts and makes her first friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The formatting of this chapter is different than all the other ones but I fixed it going forward.

Part One:  
Year One—Holly  
Chapter One:  
Holly waved to her parents from the window of the train compartment. She was eleven years old. She’d turned eleven in July, and soon after that the letter had come to her house. Now it was September, time for her to go to school.  
Holly had known the letter would come. Her parents had explained it to her when they’d started noticing the things that happened around her. Dead plants would spring back to life suddenly, and the garden would always grow wildly after she’d been out there. There were other signs, but the plants were the ones she remembered. She loved plants. She hoped there would be plants and trees in the school she was going to.  
Holly’s mother had gone to this school. It was called Hogwarts, and Holly’s mother was also a witch. But Holly’s father wasn’t a wizard. He was a very nice man, though. Holly’s mother said he’d been very understanding when she told him who she was. Holly didn’t know why anyone would be upset by learning someone was a witch, but it was good of her father anyway. That was why her parents hadn’t told her about magic before the strange occurrences, since they thought she might turn out to be non-magical.  
Holly hoped the other children would be nicer here. At her old school, the kids had made fun of her a lot. They said she was weird. At first it hurt her feelings because she thought once she went to school she would make lots of nice friends. But then she decided that she didn’t need friends as long as she had trees. She would sit underneath them and pretend they could understand what she was saying. That only made the other children make fun of her more. She would try to remind herself that all she needed was the trees, but it was never nice to be made fun of.  
The door to the compartment slid halfway open. There was a boy standing in the opening. He had light brown hair, sort of sandy. He was quite pale, to the point where it almost looked as though he was sick.  
Holly wanted to ask if he was all right, but she knew that wasn’t the right way to introduce herself. At school she had tried to ask other children things like that if she noticed they looked upset but they always though she was being weird and prying.  
“Hello,” Holly said instead.  
“Um, hello,” he said. “I don’t mean to disturb you. The other compartments I looked in were full.”  
“Oh, of course you can join me,” Holly said. “I don’t mind at all.”  
He smiled, a touch awkwardly. “Thank you.”  
He stowed his bag on the luggage rack next to Holly’s. Then he sat down across from her. Holly wasn’t sure why. She didn’t mind him sitting near her. Then again, her parents had informed her that not everyone was as comfortable with personal space as she was.  
“I’m Remus,” he said, holding his hand out.  
She shook his hand. “Holly. Nice to meet you.”  
He nodded. He didn’t continue the conversation, instead sort of retreating into the cushions of the seat. Holly took it upon herself to get to know him better. She wasn’t going to sit in the same compartment as someone else all the way to school and not try to get to know them better.  
“Are you nervous?” she asked.  
He started. “Why do you ask?”  
“Oh, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Holly said quickly. Of course she had done it again. She had to remember to stop asking people about their feelings so quickly. Her parents told her that most eleven year olds were not as aware of emotions as she was. Her parents had always taught her to be aware of other’s emotions so she wouldn’t hurt anyone, but according to them not everyone learned the same thing. And they also said some people didn’t like to talk about their emotions. Ever since then she was never sure what things were okay to ask about and what things were too much.  
She tried to explain herself. “You aren’t talking much. That’s not to say you have to talk, of course, but I thought something might be wrong. Also, it’s the first day of a new school. That’s bound to make anyone nervous.”  
“Are you nervous?” he asked.  
Holly smiled. “Oh, no, I’m excited. I never liked my old schools but I think this might finally be the right place for me.”  
“I hope it is,” he said. “For me too,” he added. “I’m not sure if I’ll fit in.”  
“I never fit in at my old school either, but this place is different. I know it will be different for you too.”  
He laughed. It was almost a happy laugh, but there was something that stopped it short of getting there. Holly wasn’t sure what it was that made everything Remus did seem kind of sad, but it was hard not to notice it.  
“I don’t know about that,” he said, his face falling.  
Holly looked a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I said something wrong, didn’t I? I’ve never really had friends before because I always say weird things. Apparently it’s off-putting.” She sighed. “Oh, I’ve gone and done it again, haven’t I? I’m sorry, talking about my flaws isn’t a very good introduction.”  
One side of his mouth quirked up. “It’s not something most people would do, but I don’t find it off-putting.”  
Holly leaned back, relieved. “That’s good.”  
Remus yawned. “Would you mind if I took a nap?”  
“No, of course not.” She picked up her jacket, which was lying next to her. “You can use this for a pillow if you want.”  
“Are you sure?”  
She shrugged. “I’m not using it.”  
“Thank you.” He folded up her jacket and lay down on the seat. Soon enough he was snoring gently.  
Holly leaned on the windowsill, looking out at the scenery. It was an overcast day. It wasn’t raining yet, but it looked as though it might at any moment.  
Remus seemed like a nice boy. There was definitely something going on with him, but if it were something important, she’d find out eventually. Or she’d never find out, if he didn’t want to tell her, and that was fine too. She wasn’t going to ask about it now, because she was sure that would ruin their budding friendship.  
Holly ended up nodding off as well, the movement of the train lulling her to sleep. She woke up some time later. Remus was shaking her gently.  
She blinked her eyes open. “What is it?”  
“Everyone’s changing into their robes. I just wanted to let you know so you didn’t wake up later and not know what was going on. Sorry for waking you up.”  
“No, it’s fine. Thank you for letting me know.”  
Holly pulled her trunk down and rifled through it. She’d packed her robes at the bottom, which didn’t seem very smart now. She finally got the robes out and pushed the top of her trunk back down. Because she’d gone through it, things were out of place, and it wasn’t fitting as well as it had before.  
“I’ll see you in a bit,” she said. Remus nodded.  
She got back to the compartment first. She took the letter her parents had given to her out of the pocket of her jacket. Holly had read it earlier because they’d given it to her when they were on the way to the station. But she missed them already, so she wanted to read it again.  
“What’s that?” Remus asked, resuming his place in the seat across from her.  
“It’s a letter my parents gave to me. They said I could read it when I missed them,” Holly explained. She folded the letter and put it down next to her.  
“You already miss them?” Remus asked.  
Holly raised her shoulders slightly. “I’ve never really been away from them. I’m excited, of course, but…I do wish that they were here with me a little bit. My father’s never even seen Hogwarts, and it would be so cool to see it for the first time together.”  
“Oh, your father isn’t a wizard?”  
“No, he isn’t. My mom’s a witch, but my dad’s just a regular guy.”  
Remus nodded. “My parents are the opposite. My dad is a wizard but my mom isn’t.”  
“Oh, cool!” Holly grinned. “I was worried everyone here was going to have both wizard parents and they would all think I was weird.”  
Remus shook his head. “Lots of people have one Muggle parent. Sometimes there are wizards and both of their parents are non-magical.”  
Holly cocked her head to the side. “Really? That’s so interesting. My parents never told me about that. In fact, they didn’t tell me much about magic at all until I showed big signs of being magical, and that wasn’t very long ago. I don’t know very much about Hogwarts, either,”  
“Me neither,” Remus said. “I don’t think my parents wanted to get my hopes up.”  
Holly had no idea what that meant so she looked out the window and didn’t say anything.  
The train started to slow down. It had probably started to slow down a while earlier, but it was now noticeable. “We must almost be there,” Holly said.  
Remus nodded. He was looking more nervous than when he’d gotten on the train. He’d gone even paler, if that was possible.  
“I’m sure everything will go fine,” Holly said. She said it so that it sounded like she was talking to herself, but it was really for Remus’s benefit. He didn’t say anything. Maybe he hadn’t even heard her.  
As soon as they got out of the train car, they heard someone calling for first years. Holly had grabbed on to Remus’s arm without really thinking about it because she was worried about getting lost. Now she was thinking that she really should have asked, but since she’d already done it, she didn’t know what to say.  
They gathered in a group of other first years in front of a man who towered above them. Most people towered above Holly, but she was pretty sure this man would have towered above anybody.  
“Follow me,” he said.  
It was dark outside, and pretty much everything blended into the darkness. The only thing Holly could see was the large man’s lantern. They followed him down to the shore of a lake. There were boats there, bobbing against the shore. The man started shepherding groups of first years into the boats.  
Because Holly was holding on to Remus, they were both in the same boat. Also in the boat were two other boys. The man had given the oars to them. Holly and Remus were sitting at one end of the boat while the two boys sat in the middle, whispering and snickering. Their boat went a little off course because the boys were playing with the oars. Holly didn’t care enough to say anything, but Remus cleared his throat and sort of raised his eyebrow at them. They corrected the course of the boat.  
Holly turned away from the two boys, hoping to catch her first sight of the castle. They sailed around a small hill and there it was. The castle loomed tall above them. Towers stabbed the sky from every direction. It was heavy and imposing. Holly liked it immediately. The castle was made of stone, yet it still gave her a sense of being in the wilderness.  
“It’s so big,” Remus whispered.  
Holly nodded, too awestruck to reply.  
They reached the landing area on the other side of the lake within a few minutes. The tall man helped all of the first years out of the boats. He led them to an entrance to the castle, where a woman met them.  
She was somewhat old. Holly really thought she was very old but she knew that wasn’t a polite thing to think. “I am Professor McGonagall,” she said. “Follow me.”  
They did all follow her down a hallway and up some steps. “Wait here,” she said.  
Holly let go of Remus’s arm. “Sorry,” she said belatedly.  
“What? Oh, it’s fine.” He kept watching where Professor McGonagall had gone.  
Now she felt like it had probably been a bad idea to mention it all. Remus seemed not to have noticed it, and now he was surely thinking about it.  
The professor came back shortly, and she beckoned all of the first years to follow her. They entered the hall amongst a smattering of cheers. Remus looked uncomfortable. Holly was also uncomfortable, but she tried not to show it. The hall was very loud, and there were a lot of people looking at her. She felt quite suddenly like no one here was going to like her.  
The group stopped near the front of the hall. McGonagall started to call the names of the first years. Holly was lost in her own worries and she hardly heard any of the names that were called. She did know about the four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. Her parents had told her that it didn’t matter which one she got into; that they were all as good as one another. Holly had thought a lot about which one she wanted to be in. She had nothing against Gryffindor or Slytherin, but she felt as though she probably wouldn’t fit in there. She felt a little like that with Ravenclaw too, though. The only other option was Hufflepuff, which sounded nice. She didn’t know much about it, though. Her mother had been a Ravenclaw, so maybe that was where she should go.  
She noticed when Remus was called only because he wasn’t next to her anymore. She stood on tiptoes, trying to see him. The hat was placed on his head. There was a pause of not more than thirty seconds, and it called out “Gryffindor!”  
Holly waved to him as he went to sit down and he smiled back. “Holly Murphy!” She whirled around. That was her name! She moved through the group carefully, apologizing as she tried to squeeze past people. She finally made it to the front of the room. She sat down on the stool. The hat was lowered on to her head.  
“Hmmm, I see,” it said, except it was inside her head.  
“Oh. Hello,” she said. She hadn’t expected it to talk to her.  
“Hello,” it said, long and drawn out. “I know exactly the place for you.” It said the last part loud enough to be heard across the hall. “Hufflepuff!”  
And the hat was lifted off her head again. Holly walked down the steps, going to join her new house. She was happy with the hat’s decision for the most part. She was a little sad that she wasn’t in the same house as Remus, since he was the only friend she’d made so far, but she didn’t see any reason why they couldn’t still hang out. And her mother had said people in Hufflepuff were very friendly. Holly liked the idea of that.

The Hufflepuffs were very friendly. Holly liked the four girls she shared her room with, but she felt a little out of place with them. They all had parents who were both wizards and she was pretty sure they all had met each other before they came to Hogwarts. They never tried to exclude her but they were always talking about things she didn’t know about.  
She did try to make friends with other people in Hufflepuff. They were all very welcoming, but she just felt like she was inserting herself in groups and she was getting in the way. She was still friendly with all of them, but she felt like her friendship with Remus was more special since he was her first friend.  
Holly also liked most of her classes. She especially enjoyed Herbology, and she was glad there was a whole class dedicated to plants. The only class she didn’t really like was flying class. Every time she got on the broom she thought she was going to fall off, or crash and die, and all those feelings made it hard to control the broom.  
Holly had Charms with the Gryffindor first years, so Remus was in her class. They would meet in the library and study for Charms almost every day, but when they were in class, he never talked to her. He’d made friends with three other boys in his house.  
It hurt Holly’s feelings a little bit. She didn’t understand why he ignored her during class, or why he didn’t want her to meet her friends. But whenever they hung out outside of class, they had such a fun time that she didn’t want to bring it up. And, after all, they were his friends. He could do whatever he wanted. Still, she felt like their friendship wasn’t as special to him as it was to her.  
But overall her first year was going great. And if she felt a little bit lonely sometimes—well, didn’t everybody?


	2. New Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly finally meets Remus's friends. She finds out why Remus didn't want her to meet them, and gets in trouble for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The formatting of this entire thing is a little bit weird but hopefully by the time anyone reads this I'll have fixed it. The chapters are a bit short, I know, but I have a lot of them so I hope it balances out lol. Also yes I'm going to put a note on every single chapter even if I have nothing to say.

Chapter Two: 

Holly and Remus were in the library, as they usually were after Charms class. Holly flipped through a few pages of the book in front of her and then wrote a few notes down. 

“Did you catch what Flitwick said about Cheering Charms?” Remus asked, reading over his notes. 

Holly flipped one of the pages of her notes. “I think so, but we don’t need to know about those until next year or the year after.” 

“I just like to be prepared,” Remus said. 

Holly leaned over the table, handing him the page of her notes. “There it is.” She pointed to the line. 

“Ah, thanks.” He read over it. Holly returned to her own notes. 

“Hey, Remus!” someone yelled. Holly looked up. It was the three boys who were friends with Remus. Two of them were walking shoulder to shoulder. One of the boys had messy black hair and a darker complexion than his friend, who had longer straight black hair. The third boy was walking behind them. He was a little bit pudgy, and he had very light hair. He had a pleasant face. 

Holly really should have known their names. She wouldn’t admit it to herself, but her refusal to learn them did have something to do with Remus never properly introducing them to her. 

The librarian shushed them loudly. The boy with longer hair rolled his eyes. When he talked to Remus again it was at a lower volume. 

“I thought we’d find you up here,” he said, leaning on the back of Remus’s chair. 

Remus looked up at him. “Did you need something?” 

“Yeah, we need your help.”

Remus looked apprehensive. “With what?” he asked. He sounded like he didn’t really want to know the answer.

The boy with shorter hair grinned. “You’ll see.” 

“I’m studying.” Remus turned back to his work. 

“Come on, Remus, we need another person.” 

Holly closed her book. “If you need some help, I could help you.” 

“Holly, no, that’s not a good idea,” Remus said. He started to get up. 

“Actually, I think it’s a great idea,” the longhaired boy said. “This will be the perfect chance to meet your other friend. You talk about her enough, and yet somehow she’s always busy when we want to meet her.” 

“Sirius, I can guarantee you, whatever you’re planning to do, she won’t be interested in.” Remus had turned around and was glaring at Sirius now. 

Sirius met his eyes. “I think that’s something we should ask her, don’t you?”

Madame Pince was at their table out of nowhere. “If you’re going to argue, you aren’t going to do it in my library,” she hissed. She shooed them out of the library, slamming the door behind them. 

“My notes are still in there,” Remus said, trying to grab the door handle. The boy whose name Holly didn’t know grabbed Remus’s arm. 

“Come on, you can get your notes later. Let’s just go.” 

“Fine, we’ll all go,” Remus said. 

Sirius grinned. “Good.” 

They started to walk down the hallway. 

“So, where are we going?” Holly asked. 

“We’re going to play a trick,” the boy with messy hair said. “I’m James, by the way.” He pointed to the last boy. “That’s Peter.”

“Nice to meet you,” Holly said. “I’m Holly, but I guess you already know that.” 

“You didn’t know Remus told us about you?” Sirius asked. Holly shook her head. “Did he tell you anything about us?” Holly shook her head again. 

“Remus,” James said, “How could you let her miss out on the chance to hear how cool we are?” 

Remus rolled his eyes. “This is exactly why I didn’t tell her about you.”

“Who are we playing a trick on?” Holly asked. 

“Filch, of course: the best person to play a trick on,” James said. 

“You’re going to get detention again,” Remus warned. 

Holly frowned. “Again? How many times have you gotten detention already?”

“Oh, only three,” Sirius said flippantly. 

“There’s only been a month of school,” Holly pointed out. 

“That’s exactly what I’ve been saying,” Remus said. “Holly, are you sure you want to go with him, especially now?” 

“Yeah!” Holly grinned. “It seems like fun. And Filch isn’t very nice. I don’t see the harm if no one gets hurt. Besides, I’ve never got detention before. It might be cool to see what it’s like.” 

One of the boys slapped her back. “There you go, Remus. She does want to come with us.” 

“I can’t stop you, Holly, but I feel like this is a bad idea,” Remus said. 

“I appreciate your concern,” Holly said. Sirius grabbed her arm just before she walked around the corner. “Oh, is Filch over there?” she whispered. 

James was leaning around the corner. He nodded. 

“What’s the plan?” Holly asked.

“All you have to do is distract Filch, and we’ll do the rest,” Sirius said. 

“Sirius,” Remus admonished. “This is not a good idea. You know she’s going to get in trouble for this.” 

Sirius scoffed. “She won’t get in trouble. Filch won’t know she has anything to do with it, I promise.” 

Remus shook his head. “This isn’t going to work out well, but I won’t stop you, Holly. You decide what you want to do.” 

“I can do it,” she said brightly. “I want to help.” 

“Okay,” Sirius said. He pushed her slightly. “Let’s get going, then.” 

Holly gave them thumbs up and walked around the corner. “Um, excuse me, Mr. Filch,” she said quietly. 

He looked up from his work, cleaning up a spill. “What do you want?” 

“Um, I just need some help with something. There’s…another spill…down a corridor…over there.” She pointed. 

Filch grumbled. “You terrible little students…just when I finish with one spill you go and make another one. You should all be locked up…locked up and punished. Detention? Detention is too lenient for the likes of you.” 

“I didn’t spill anything,” Holly said. “I just found some water on the floor. At least I think it’s water.” 

There was a sort of flash from around the corner. Filch grumbled again. “All right, show me where this spill is.” 

He took a step towards her and immediately slipped on something, falling backwards with a loud crash. He landed on Mrs. Norris’s tail. She screeched and ran the other direction. Holly giggled a little bit. She felt kind of bad for laughing because an animal had been hurt, but Filch had looked so funny falling over that she couldn’t help herself. 

Filch spluttered. “What is the meaning of this?"

Holly covered her mouth. 

“Holly, what is going on here?” Holly looked up. Professor Flitwick was standing in the hallway, his hands on his hips.

“Well…” Holly looked at Filch. She looked back at Flitwick. 

Filch pointed at Holly. “She did something. She made me fall.” 

“Holly, did you do that?” Flitwick asked. 

Holly’s eyes flashed briefly to the corner. She could hear a few snickers from that direction, but hopefully Flitwick wouldn’t hear them.

“Um, yes,” Holly said. “I made Filch fall over. I…thought it would be funny.” She tried to smile sincerely but she thought it probably looked more like she was embarrassed, which was true. She hated lying, and she knew she wasn’t very good at it, but she was trying her best. 

Flitwick sighed. His eyes passed over her, looking at the corner behind. “Would you like to change your answer, Holly?” 

“Uh, no,” she said slowly. 

Flitwick sighed again. “James, Sirius, come out from behind there. I know you’re behind this.” 

There was a long pause. James and Sirius finally stepped out from behind the wall. They looked contrite, even though Holly was pretty sure they weren’t. This was confirmed when she saw them drop their act to smile at each other for a moment. But they quickly slipped back into their act. 

“Hi, Flitwick,” James said. 

Flitwick looked up at them. “I’m very disappointed in you. Not only have you possibly injured Mr. Filch and his cat, but you’ve drawn Holly into your rule-breaking too.” 

“She didn’t even know what was happening,” James said. “We just told her to distract Filch for us. It’s not her fault we used the distraction to make Filch fall.” 

“Well, if circumstances had been different, I wouldn’t punish her, but she lied about what happened, so I’m going to have to give you all detention.” Flitwick tried to look tough. It didn’t really work. 

“This won’t happen again,” Sirius promised, looking very serious. 

Flitwick sighed. “It most certainly will. You three will join me in my office tomorrow night. And I will take five points from Hufflepuff and ten points from Gryffindor.” 

“What!” James said. “You’re taking five points from her and ten from us!” 

“Yes, because there’s only one of her, and two of you.” Flitwick started to walk away. “Now you’d better get out of here before Filch decides detention isn’t enough.” 

James nodded. He grabbed Holly’s arm and the three of them disappeared around the corner. They ran down the corridor. They started running up a staircase. Holly got the idea that because they were going so high they were probably going to the Gryffindor common room. She wasn’t sure if she was allowed in there, but she thought it would be a bit awkward if she were to suddenly disappear. 

They reached the portrait that guarded the entrance to the common room. James started to say the password, but the Fat Lady interrupted him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the Fat Lady asked. 

“What?” James asked. He was clearly annoyed.

“You’re going to let a member of a different house hear the password to our common room?” she asked. 

James narrowed his eyes. He looked around the group. “Oh, right, Holly.” 

“We could go to my common room,” Holly suggested. The portrait wasn’t sentient, and even if it was, she was pretty sure it wouldn’t care who came into the common room. She didn’t think the other Hufflepuffs would care either. 

James waved his hand. “No, no, I can get her to let us in.” He turned back to the Fat Lady. “What if she covers her ears?”

“I can’t trust her to keep her ears covered.”

“Okay, what if one of us covers her ears?” James said.

The Fat Lady thought about it for quite a long time. “I suppose that would be acceptable.”

“Great,” James said. Remus covered Holly’s ears for a few seconds and then the portrait swung open. Holly followed the four boys into the Gryffindor common room. Holly immediately felt uncomfortable. 

“Am I allowed in here?” Holly whispered to Remus. 

“Technically, I don’t think so. But you’re leading a life of crime now, aren’t you?” Holly couldn’t tell if he was joking or if he was actually mad at her.

No one else in the common room was paying much attention to the group, but Holly felt like someone was going to point out that she didn’t belong there at any second. The four boys sat on one of the couches. Well, James and Sirius sat on the couch. Remus sat in a chair across from them and Peter sat on the floor. Holly stood awkwardly in between them until James motioned for her to sit on the couch next to him.

“That was hilarious, wasn’t it?” James said as Holly sat next to him. 

Remus raised an eyebrow. 

“What, you didn’t think that was at least a little bit funny?” Sirius asked. 

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to introduce Holly to you,” Remus said. “You’re a bad influence!” 

That made Holly a little happier. It wasn’t, after all, that he was ignoring her in class because he had better friends; it was that he though those friends would influence her actions. Although, it was still a little annoying that he didn’t think she could make her own decisions, or that she didn’t take full responsibility for her decisions.

“And now she has detention.” Remus threw out his hands angrily. 

“She didn’t have to lie for us,” James said. He looked at Holly. “Not that we don’t appreciate it, of course, but we didn’t expect her to do that.” 

“Remus, I really don’t mind having detention. I appreciate that you’re trying to help me out, but I can make my own decisions,” Holly said. 

Remus sighed. “You said we were all going to do homework tomorrow after dinner, and now you have detention.” 

Sirius waved his hand dismissively. “We can do that the day after tomorrow.”

“No, we can’t, because I’m leaving that day, early,” Remus said. 

Holly was confused. She could tell by the other boy’s expressions that they were as well. Remus hadn’t mentioned anything about leaving. Also, she didn’t know that much about Hogwarts, but she was pretty sure students didn’t usually leave randomly.

“What? Why? Where are you going?” James leaned forward, almost falling off the couch. 

“I have to go home,” Remus said. “My mom’s sick.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Holly said.

Remus waved his hand. “She’s sick all the time. It just helps her to know that I’m there. My family made special arrangements with Dumbledore in case it happened during the school year. I guess I kind of forgot to tell you because I didn’t know if it would come up.” 

“That’s okay,” James said.

“Sorry we’ll be in detention,” Sirius said. “But you can hang out with Peter. Right, Peter? You don’t have anything going on tomorrow night, do you?” 

Peter shook his head.

“There you go.” James grinned. 

Remus rolled his eyes. “I guess I’ll see you all when I come back—whenever that is. Don’t get Holly in any more trouble while I’m gone, okay?” 

Sirius and James both scoffed. “As if we’d ever do that,” Sirius said. 

Remus raised one of his eyebrows.


	3. Detention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly goes to detention and makes new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note about chapters: I'm trying to have one up every week (I forgot when I posted the first two though which is why this one is not a week later). I don't know how many chapters there will be in total because I'm not finished with this yet, although I do have a lot of chapters already written, so I'll be able to update this regularly for the foreseeable future. Assuming I remember on the right day lol.

Chapter Three: 

Holly dutifully reported to detention the next night. She went to Flitwick’s office right after dinner because he hadn’t given a specific time and she didn’t want to be late. James and Sirius showed up approximately fifteen minutes later. 

“There you are,” Flitwick said. 

“So, what’s it gonna be this time?” James asked. 

Flitwick started walking. “I am going to take the three of you to the Trophy room. You know what to do. I’ll come back and get you when your time is done. And don’t even think about leaving halfway through, because I’ve asked Filch to look in on you from time to time.” 

Sirius groaned. 

“No fair!” James said. 

“If you didn’t want this to happen, you shouldn’t have broken the rules,” Flitwick said. 

He took them to the trophy room and left, presumably to go back to his office and continue his work. 

“Flitwick’s actually pretty nice,” Sirius said to Holly. “If you’re going to get detention he’s one of the better ones to get it from.” 

“Yeah, he even let all of us stay together,” James said. 

Holly looked around the trophy room doubtfully. “Teachers would make you serve detention alone?” 

“Yeah, usually. Most of them don’t want you to have any fun while you’re in detention,” James said. 

“That makes sense I guess,” Holly said. She was still looking around the room. 

“What is it?” James asked. 

“I don’t know. I just don’t think I’d like to be in this room alone.” She tilted her head to the side. “To be fair, I don’t like being most places alone.” 

Sirius grinned and threw his arm around her shoulders. “It’s a good thing we’re here then, isn’t it?”

Holly laughed. “So, uh, what do you do in detention?” 

James threw a rag at her. It nearly slipped through her fingers. She reached after it, grabbing it just before it hit the floor. “In the trophy room, we polish the trophies.” 

“Makes sense,” Holly said to herself. She looked around for a trophy that was in need of polishing. She settled on one that looked like it had gone through some kind of acid wash. 

“I don’t get why Remus waited until now to tell us he had to go home,” James said. He was holding an already very polished trophy. He sat down, running his rag over it without actually looking at it. 

“Maybe he just found out,” Holly suggested. 

Sirius shook his head. “It sounded like he already knew, since he was mad about us having detention tonight.” 

Holly shrugged. “Maybe he was waiting until tonight to tell you. It is kind of an awkward thing to talk about, I guess.” 

“It’s not that awkward,” Sirius said. “But I don’t really care. I just feel like he’s acting strange.” 

“He was really nervous before we got to school,” Holly said. “I thought there was something going on. But he was probably just worried about his mom since it sounds like she’s been sick before.” 

Neither James nor Sirius answered her. 

“You met Remus on the train, right?” James asked after a pause. He’d picked up a new trophy. Holly was still working on the one she’d grabbed first. Sirius had dropped his rag on the ground and was tossing a trophy up in the air.

“Yep,” Holly said. 

“Did you know anyone else before you came here?” he asked. 

“I didn’t know any other wizards, if that’s what you mean. My family lives in an area with a lot of non-magical people, and my mom was kind of cut off from the wizarding community,” Holly explained. 

Sirius put down the trophy he was tossing around. “Why’s that?” 

Holly let out a breath. “Well, my mom’s family didn’t like her marrying a Muggle very much, so they basically stopped talking to her. I’ve actually never even met them.” 

Sirius snorted. “Sounds like my family. Only it’s my parents who would freak out if I ruined our family’s blood purity or whatever.” 

Holly frowned. “I’m sorry. That sounds awful.” 

Sirius nodded. “They’re so annoying.” 

“If you don’t want to go back there for breaks you could come home with me. I know my parents wouldn’t mind, especially with my mom having been in the same situation as you,” Holly said. 

Sirius looked a little taken aback. “Uh, James and I already agreed we’d spend winter holidays at Hogwarts, but thanks, I guess.” 

“Of course,” Holly said. “The offer’s always open.” 

“You’re planning to go back home for the holidays, then?” James asked. 

Holly nodded. “I miss my parents. I didn’t really have any friends before I came to Hogwarts; I just had them.”

James nodded. “I just want to spend more time at Hogwarts. I love it here.” 

“It is pretty cool.” Holly smiled. 

The door slammed open. “You three better be hard at work in there!” It was Filch’s voice. Sirius quickly fumbled for the trophy and his rag. All three of them were bent over their work by the time Filch made it through the door. He watched them for a little bit. Finally, he left, muttering under his breath. The door slammed behind him. 

They all let out a sigh of relief. 

“Filch is pretty scary,” Holly remarked. 

Sirius scoffed. “He’s not that scary. He’s all talk. He says a lot of things, but he can’t follow through on any of them. Dumbledore wouldn’t let him.” 

Holly pulled her mouth to one side and looked up at the corner of the room. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” 

“Hey, Sirius, catch,” James said, throwing the trophy he was holding up in the air. Sirius snatched it out of the air. 

“Um, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea,” Holly said, kind of quietly. Sirius tossed the trophy back to James. Holly wasn’t sure if he hadn’t heard her or he was just ignoring her. 

James threw it again. This time it slipped through Sirius’s fingers and nearly hit the floor. Luckily he grabbed it again. 

“If Filch comes back, he’s going to be mad,” Holly said. 

“Filch was just here,” Sirius said. “He won’t be back for ages.” Sirius threw the trophy high up in the air, so high that it almost it the ceiling. All three of them watched it as it fell back down. The door rattled. Sirius and James both turned to look, but Holly still had her eye on the trophy. 

She grabbed it out of the air, sitting down as she did so and rubbing it harshly. Filch swung the door open just after she did so, sticking his head in momentarily. He slammed the door shut immediately. 

James and Sirius both let out sighs of relief. 

“Thanks, Holly,” James said. 

“Yeah, you really saved us there,” Sirius said. 

Holly gave them both a wide grin. “No problem.” 

And from that moment on, she was friends with all of them. Remus was iffy about it at first, but soon enough he got used to the idea of them hanging out together. And she also hung out with them when Remus wasn’t there, which was about once every month for a few days at least. 

Holly had other friends, or, to be precise, one other friend. When Remus hadn’t been talking to her in Charms, she’d sat with a Gryffindor girl. Her name was Lily Evans, and she was really smart. But they never talked outside of class because Lily didn’t like her friends and Holly didn’t like Lily’s friend. 

She understood why Lily didn’t like James and Sirius—they were the problem, after all. Remus and Peter were nice boys for the most part. But James and Sirius could be rambunctious, and they could barely go a week without getting in trouble.

Holly felt bad for saying that she didn’t like Lily’s friend. She didn’t like not liking people, and she had really tried to be friends with Severus. But she could tell he thought she was stupid. She wasn’t, at least she wasn’t stupid enough not to know when someone looked down on her. Severus wasn’t like that with Lily because Lily was smart, or at least smart according to Severus. Holly knew she wasn’t that good at schoolwork, and she wasn’t very observant either, but that wasn’t anything to look down on someone for. Lily liked Severus, though, and Holly wasn’t going to try to break up their friendship for her sake. Lily was a friend in class, and that was that. 

Soon enough, they started thinking about winter break. Holly had known since she started school that she was going to want to go back home. James and Sirius had already let everyone know that they were going to stay at school. Remus was going home so he could see his mom again, and Peter just wanted to go home. At least, that was what Holly thought. She hadn’t actually asked him about it, and he hadn’t volunteered that information to anyone. 

She should really try to talk to Peter more. He was her friend too. He was quiet, so he had a tendency to get lost among Sirius and James’s pranks and Remus’s disapproving of said pranks. He mostly sat there and agreed with people. But Holly knew he had to have his own opinions about things, and she was going to find out. He deserved to feel like a part of the friend group too. Holly didn’t care about that kind of thing, but she knew some people did, and feeling left out could weigh on a person. Who knew what that would lead to in the future?


	4. Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's winter break at Hogwarts and Holly goes home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like my comma use in this chapter is suspect in some points but I am not very good with commas...Also I am aware that I slightly made Peter's only personality trait 'likes food', and I mention this only because I'm trying to fix it and I want him to be a more well-rounded character but he's the least talked about and I'm bad at expanding from canon (cuz I'm always like 'but this didn't happen'). I'm getting better tho. But basically I just want everyone to know that I am aware of this and I am working on it.

Chapter Four: 

The train chugged out of the Hogsmeade station. Holly, Remus, and Peter had said goodbye to Sirius and James earlier in the day. Holly had hugged both of them, assuring them she was going to bring back presents for them. 

“Don’t worry,” she’d said, “Remus and Peter, I’m getting presents for you too.” 

Remus had protested, saying she didn’t need to get them presents, but Holly had insisted. 

Now she was on the train, sharing the compartment with Remus and Peter. They’d been chugging along steadily for a few minutes. The snowy landscape passed by them quickly. 

“So, Peter, what’s your family like?” Holly asked. 

“Oh, nothing special,” he said. “My family is all wizards, as far back as I know. We’ve been the same for pretty much a hundred years.” 

“Do you have any siblings?” Holly asked. 

Peter shook his head. 

Holly sighed. “I always wanted siblings. My parents said they never wanted to have any other kids but I would have loved to have someone who was always there for me and that I could have always been with. I mean, I had my parents, but that’s not the same as having someone your age.” She stopped abruptly, blushing. “Oh, I’ve done it again, haven’t I?” 

“Holly, it’s okay. We’re your friends,” Remus said. “You don’t have to be worried about talking about yourself.” 

She played with a bit of her hair. “I just never know when I’m close enough to people to say certain things. I mean, I never was close enough to anyone so I’m not sure how long you’re supposed to know someone, if—well, I’m not sure about anything really.” 

“I’m happy to listen,” Remus said. “And you are too, right, Peter?” 

Peter nodded. 

“I can’t speak for James and Sirius,” Remus continued, “but I’m sure they don’t mind. Even if they are stupid about things sometimes.”  
Holly smiled. “Thank you.” She sighed. “I suppose their pranks do get out of hand rather often.” 

“It’s not about the pranks,” Remus said. “It’s fine if they goof off. But sometimes they’re mean about it and it makes me wonder how they would react if they found out about certain things.” 

Holly had no idea what that meant and Remus didn’t elaborate, so she changed the subject. “Oh, let me know how your mom is doing. Does she need anything? I’m sure my family could help out.” 

Remus half-smiled. “Thanks for the offer, but I think we’re fine. I’ll let you know if there’s anything you can do.” 

Holly took out a book soon after that. It was a thick encyclopedia of types of trees. She was about halfway through it. She’d only been reading it a little while when Peter moved to sit next to her. 

“What are you reading?” he asked. 

“It’s a book about trees,” Holly said excitedly. “I really like trees. I think they’re so pretty, and they all have such unique characteristics. It’s almost like they’re people.” She smiled to herself. “I played around trees a lot as a child because I didn’t have any friends.” 

“But now you do have friends,” Peter said.

Holly laughed. “Yes,” she said. “I do.” 

Holly read her book for the rest of the train ride. Her parents were waiting on the platform for her when she arrived. Remus’s dad was there, and so were both of Peter’s parents. Holly hugged both of them and then said goodbye individually.

“I’ll see you in a few weeks!” Holly waved to them as she walked away with her parents.

Soon enough they were in the car on the way back to her house. Her family owned a car because they lived in a mostly Muggle area and because they’d had to drive her to school when she’d been younger. Also, Holly’s dad wouldn’t ever admit it, but he liked the idea of being able to show off to the neighbors. 

“How has your first year of Hogwarts been going?” Holly’s mother asked. 

“It’s been great!” Holly said. “I made so many friends. I mean, like four and a half, but that’s a lot of friends for me.” 

“That’s great,” her dad said. “What are they like?” 

“Well, there’s Peter. He’s kind of quiet, but he’s really nice and he’s always supportive of the rest of us. James and Sirius are basically inseparable. They’re kind of troublemakers but they’re mostly really nice. And Remus was the first friend I made. It’s been a bit rough for him so far since his mom is sick all the time, but hopefully she’ll be doing better after break and he can spend more time at school with us.” 

“Yeah, I’m sorry about his mom. That does sound rough,” her mom said. 

“Oh, also we have to go Christmas shopping. The presents will be late, but I want to get things for my friends.” 

“What about your other friend?” her dad asked. 

“What?” 

“You said you had four and a half friends. You only mentioned four.” 

“Oh right,” Holly said. “I almost forgot about Lily. I only hang out with her during class because she has a friend who I don’t like very much. But Lily likes him so I don’t want to mess their friendship up. I don’t mind only hanging out with her in class.” 

“Why don’t you like her friend?” her mom asked. 

“He isn’t very nice to me. I think he thinks I’m not very smart. He doesn’t act that way with Lily, though.” 

“If he acts like that at all, he doesn’t seem like a very nice person. Maybe you should tell your friend how he makes you feel. If she’s your friend she should at the very least try to mention it to him,” her mom said. 

Holly shrugged. “Lily likes him and I don’t want to ruin that. Like I said, I really don’t mind. I don’t have to hang out with him.” 

“As long as you’re happy, Holly,” her dad said. 

“When can we go shopping?” Holly asked, bouncing excitedly up and down in her seat. 

“We’re planning to come back to London this weekend to pick some things up for Christmas, so we can go round the shops then,” Holly’s mom said. 

“Great!” Holly grinned widely. 

A week later they were back in London. Holly, as usual, could not contain her excitement. She flitted from store to store, ducking in and out. In most of the places she didn’t find anything for her friends. Holly was a very particular gift giver. In her opinion, there was only one perfect gift for any given occasion and she was intent on finding it. Of course, she didn’t know any of her new friends that well, but she was still sure she could find a great gift for all of them. 

It took her some hours to find the gifts for each one of them. In fact, it took her pretty much the entire day to get things she was happy with, but when she got into the car at the end of the day she was excited for her friends to see what she’d gotten. 

The first present she’d found was for Lily. Lily was the one who she knew the least well, since she only saw her in class, but she did know that Lily’s parents were non-magic, and that she really enjoyed potions. She’ d gotten Lily a book that was a reprint of an alchemical book from the fifteenth century. Lily knew about Muggle history, she assumed, and Holly hoped Lily would find the book interesting. 

Since James and Sirius were both from wizard families, she thought it would be fun to get them something Muggle related. But she knew Sirius’s family didn’t like Muggle stuff, so she had wanted to get something small that he could make sure they didn’t see. 

She’d gotten James a bunch of football trading cards since she knew he liked Quidditch. Since football was kind of equivalent to Quidditch—at least when it came to the fans—so she thought he would appreciate being introduced to it. And collecting cards struck her as something he might be into. 

Holly had gotten Sirius a candle. Obviously, wizards had candles too, but she’d never seen scented ones. The one she’d gotten him was apple cinnamon scented, a scent that always made her feel cozy. She also hoped he could burn it at home and maybe it would remind him of Hogwarts and being with friends. It seemed very much like a scent that would fill the Gryffindor common room. 

She also didn’t know Peter very well, not because she didn’t hang out with him that much, but because he didn’t talk very much. She mostly knew he liked food, which most people did, and he was an only child. She had to be careful because she didn’t want anything to go bad in the time until she could give them the gifts. So she decided to get him some Cadbury’s chocolate. She was hoping that although it was a popular Muggle candy, Peter might not have seen it before. She also hoped it wouldn’t melt on the train.

Last but certainly not least was Remus’s gift. She’d gotten him a book. Remus liked books. He wasn’t exactly a bookworm per say, since he didn’t read all that much, but he enjoyed looking for interesting books when they were in the library. His present was the only one she’d gotten when they went to Diagon Alley. The illustrations moved, which she thought was really cool. The portraits at Hogwarts moved, and pictures always moved (if they were taken with wizard cameras) but she hadn’t seen a book with drawings that moved. The book was actually in Icelandic, but she thought the pictures were cool enough to make up for that.

She stayed at home with her family for the rest of the break. Their Christmas celebration was a small affair. Neither of Holly’s parents got on with their families, so Holly hardly ever saw them. In fact, she’d never met her dad’s parents. According to him, they hadn’t liked her mother. Holly didn’t really mind. She had her parents, and now she had all her friends. That was enough for her. 

Holly had a great time over break, but when she was back on platform 9 and 3/4, saying goodbye to her parents, she wanted nothing more than to be back at school with her friends. On the train she pulled open compartment doors until she found Remus and Peter. She virtually catapulted herself into the compartment, hugging both of them. 

“It’s so good to see you!” She sat across from them. “How were your breaks? Remus, how’s your mom? Peter, how is your family? Did you get any cool presents? Oh, I have your presents—but I guess I should wait until we’re back at school.” 

They both looked at her. “Which one of us do you want to answer first?” Remus asked. 

Holly blushed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you.” 

“It’s fine,” Remus said. “My mom’s okay right now.” 

“That’s good.” Holly smiled. 

They traded stories about their breaks for most of the train ride. Once back at Hogwarts, they were ferried back over the lake. There was a welcome back feast, so Holly couldn’t say hello to Sirius and James. Remus told her to come to the Gryffindor common room after the dinner. Holly wasn’t sure how she was going to get in, but she agreed anyway. It felt like the feast went on forever, but finally she was standing outside of the Gryffindor common room. 

As she’d expected, the Fat Lady wouldn’t let her in. “Could you just tell my friends that I’m here?” 

“I’m not a carrier pigeon!” the Fat Lady complained. 

“Oh, Holly, there you are. Remus asked me to find you but I guess you were already here.” Peter was walking up behind her, eating some food he’d brought with him from the welcome feast.

“Hey,” Holly said. “You can get me in, right?”

“As long as you cover her ears,” the Fat Lady specified.

Peter did so and Holly watched as the portrait swung open. As she stepped into the common room she saw her friends (minus Peter) monopolizing the couch by the fire. Holly grinned and ran to the couch, throwing herself onto it so she could hug James and Sirius. After about a minute she stood up excitedly, slipping her bag off her shoulder. 

“Here’s all your gifts,” she said, handing them around. She’d left Lily’s in her dorm, since she knew she wouldn’t see Lily until class. 

She sat down on the floor, waiting for all of them to unwrap her presents. Peter was immediately excited when he saw the word chocolate. Remus rifled through the book, while James did the same with the cards. Sirius sniffed the candle. 

Holly launched into her usual addendums of gift giving. “Remus, I know that book’s in Icelandic, but I thought the pictures were really cool, and you could just look at them. I’m sure you don’t know much about football, James, but it’s kind of the equivalent of Quidditch for Muggles. There are lots of rules to it, and people support different teams and stuff. 

“I hope you like how the candle smells, Sirius. I wasn’t sure what scent to get, but that one seemed cozy and I thought maybe it could remind you of being here when you have to go home. Peter, the chocolate’s not much but I thought maybe you wouldn’t have heard of it before since it’s a Muggle chocolate, and I know you love to try new foods.” 

She sort of stopped talking awkwardly. “Well, I hope you like them,” she said quietly. 

There was a moment of silence and then the four boys piled on top of her, hugging her tightly. 

“They’re great,” James said. “They’re all great.” 

“Thank you, Holly,” they chorused. 

Holly smiled. She was so glad she’d finally found her friends.


	5. Already Over?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Year one comes to a close. Holly gets to know each of the boys a little bit better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I was going to try to update on the same day every week but that didn't happen. I guess I always feel nervous about posting a new chapter, so I end up not doing it. I just never feel like I'm done editing. But anyway, here's the next chapter. I'll try to post them more frequently, at least.

Chapter Five: 

The year proceeded very similarly from that point. Remus would go home pretty much every month, James and Sirius would get detention pretty much every week, and Holly spent a lot of time with Peter, since he was the only one who didn’t have anything else going on. Holly talked less and less with Lily. Remus would sit with her again in class, and that meant James and Sirius would too. Lily didn’t like James or Sirius, so no matter how many times Holly invited her to sit with them, she wouldn’t. Holly tried to hang out with Lily in her free time, but outside of class Lily was inseparable from Severus. 

Because Remus was gone so much, Holly ended up studying in the library by herself quite a bit. Peter would come with her sometimes, but he got bored quickly. He couldn’t really focus on one thing for very long. Holly tried to help him study by making it a sort of challenge, so he could have a piece of candy when he was done with a page, but it only worked sometimes. And she got barely any studying done with him because helping him took all of her attention. 

It was actually a good thing that Peter didn’t always want to come with her. Of course, she never minded helping him, but she did need to get her homework done as well. She was by herself in the library one day, trying to write a paper for Charms. It was one of her final papers and she wanted to get a good grade on it. 

Sirius sat down across from her out of nowhere. She hadn’t even seen him come in. He was seldom to be seen in the library, so Holly knew he must need something. 

“Hi Sirius,” Holly said quietly. ‘What’s up?” 

Sirius sighed. “I’m failing Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall said that I can make up for all the times I missed class and stuff if I write this paper about transfiguration spells. The problem is that I never paid attention and I don’t know anything about transfiguration. McGonagall said you’re pretty good at transfiguration and you might be able to help me.” 

Holly went to get some books out of her bag. “Well, I’m not that good at actual transfiguration, but I do know a lot about the spells so if it’s just a paper I think I can help.” 

Sirius grinned faintly. “Thanks.” 

Holly dropped the books on the table. “Are there any more specific directions for the paper?” 

Sirius passed something over the table. “She wrote some things down for me.” 

Holly read over the page. “You have about a week to turn this in, right?” 

Sirius nodded. “Then we’ll be going home.” He groaned. “Right, I have to go home in two weeks.” 

“Is it really that bad?” Holly asked. She leaned forward on the table a bit. 

Sirius nodded. “I hate it there. My parents are so horrible. And they hate that I was sorted into Gryffindor, so it’ll be even worse.” 

“Couldn’t you go somewhere else for the summer? Like James’s or something?” 

“They wouldn’t let me,” Sirius said. 

Holly leaned her chin on her hand. “What if I came home with you? Maybe that would make it a little bit better, at least.” 

Sirius shook his head. “They wouldn’t let that happen either.” 

Holly’s face fell. 

“But you don’t know what you’re offering, Holly. They’re really bad. All they do is talk about how much they hate Muggles, and they’re always yelling at me and…you would hate it there.” He looked at her earnestly. 

“I guess I would.” Holly shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind it that much though, if me being there helped you to feel better.” 

“Thanks,” Sirius said. He sounded very surprised. Madam Pince shushed them. 

“Sorry,” Holly whispered. She turned back to Sirius. “If there ever is a time when you think your parents would let me come visit, I totally would. I promise.” 

“Thanks,” Sirius said, quietly. “But I doubt they would. I’ll be fine anyway.” 

“We should probably start working on this paper,” Holly said. 

Sirius nodded. 

A few days later Holly was down by the lake. It was the weekend, so she had a lot of free time. She’d been trying to hang out with Lily and Severus again, since she hadn’t gotten to talk to Lily the last few days in class. It hadn’t gone well. Severus had implied that Holly was only doing well in her classes because she cheated, but it had been just subtle enough that Holly wasn’t sure if she was just overreacting, so she didn’t want to make a scene. 

She excused herself and went down to the lake to cry. Holly cried quite a lot for someone who didn’t like to cry in front of people. Case in point: she heard someone call her name and immediately tried to wipe the tears off her face. She wasn’t all that successful because when she turned around James took a step back. 

“Oh, are you okay?” he asked. 

She continued wiping at her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine.” 

“You don’t look fine.” James sat down next to her. 

“It’s nothing, really.” Holly drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around them. “I mean, it was just Severus and he’s always like that.” 

“Like what?” 

“I mean he’s always mean to me,” Holly said. 

James sighed. “Why do you still hang out with him?” 

“I don’t!” Holly protested. “I just want to see Lily, but she always hangs out with Severus. And if I ask her not to bring him she’ll want to know why and I don’t feel like arguing about it.” 

James tapped his chin. “I guess we’ll just have to give him a taste of his own medicine.” 

Holly widened her eyes. “Oh no, I don’t want you to do that. Especially not on my account.” 

“Well, not just on your account.” James grinned. He stood up and offered her a hand. Holly took it and he pulled her to her feet. He slung his arm over her shoulder. “Hey, he deserves it.” 

“That depends on what you’re planning,” Holly said. “Besides, I don’t like the idea of you taking matters into your own hands. If it was really a big deal I would tell a teacher.” 

“It’s not really because of you,” James said. “Frankly, I don’t like him, and neither does Sirius.” 

That’s even worse, Holly almost said, but she didn’t feel like getting into an argument with James. She probably should have said it. If she’d had the argument with him then, it might have changed a lot of things in the future. But Holly never liked to argue, and she wasn’t much thinking about the future when she decided to stay silent. 

Remus came back the week before they were going home for the summer. She thought it was a bit pointless when they were leaving so soon, especially because he’d already been at home. Surely it would have been more convenient for his parents if he’d stayed home, but at least it meant she could see him one more time before the summer. 

They studied in the library for a little bit, but Remus kept nodding off. He was looking worse than usual. Holly always wondered how he could look paler every time she saw him, but this time he also had deep blue circles under his eyes. 

“Maybe you should go get some rest,” Holly said after the third time his head dropped down on his books. 

Remus shook his head. “It’s never quiet in my room during the day. Besides, I’ll be fine for the rest of the day. I can sleep in tomorrow morning.”

“Or you can come to my dorm,” Holly suggested. “It’s always quiet in there, and even if someone is being loud, they’ll understand if I ask them to leave.”

Remus looked embarrassed. “But that’s the girls dorm.” 

“Yeah, but it’s the middle of the day. Probably no one will be in there. Even if they were, I don’t think any of them would care.” Holly tilted her head to the side. “But if you care I can ask the boys I know if you could use one of their beds. Or you could sleep in the common room. It’s usually quiet there too.” 

Remus looked like he was wavering. “Are you sure no one would mind?” 

“Of course!” Holly said. “That’s what Hufflepuff is about, right?” 

Remus gave in. “Fine. I guess I am pretty tired.” 

Holly shoved her books into her bag and led Remus out of the library. 

“I just realized I’ve never been to your common room before,” Remus said. 

“You all always want to go to Gryffindor. I did suggest it once.” Holly shrugged. “I don’t really mind. It does make more sense to go to Gryffindor, since all of you are in Gryffindor.” 

“We don’t always have to meet in the Gryffindor common room, though,” Remus said. “There are plenty of other places for us to meet that aren’t either of our houses, and that’s probably easier for you, right?” 

Holly shrugged again. “Like I said, I don’t really mind.” 

As Holly had predicted, the Hufflepuff common room was pretty empty. There was one boy working on his homework at a warm brown table, and two girls talked in low voices at another table. All three of them looked up briefly when Holly walked in, but they quickly returned to their respective activities. 

“Here.” Holly pointed to the couch by the wall. There was a shelf above it with a few plants that Holly occasionally watered. She hadn’t expected the common room to have so many plants in it—or indeed to have any plants—but she was very glad they were there. 

Remus collapsed almost immediately onto the couch, literally sinking into the comfy cushions. He sighed contentedly. 

“Would you like a blanket?” Holly asked. 

Remus shook his head. “I’m fine.” 

She could tell he was already half asleep. She went and sat in one of the chairs that was closer to the center of the common room but from which she could still keep an eye on Remus. She pulled out a book from her bag, starting to read over it again. The school year was almost over, but it was always good to be prepared. Besides, she didn’t know how many things she would need to remember for next year. It couldn’t hurt to start reviewing. 

Remus slept for a few hours. During that time, a few students went in and out of the common room. But they all noticed Remus sleeping there and did their best not to wake him up. Holly would have asked them to be quiet if it had been necessary, but she was glad that it wasn’t. 

When Remus woke up he looked a little bit better. A bit of color had come back to his cheeks, and he looked more energetic. Holly had hoped for more improvement than that, but it was better than nothing. 

Remus looked at the clock on the wall. He jumped to his feet. “Oh, I’ve got to get to class. Thanks so much for letting me sleep here.” 

“No problem.” Holly smiled. “See you later.” 

Soon enough, it was time to go home. The farewell feast was nice, although it would have been nicer if she could have sat with her friends. Gryffindor won the house cup, but then Gryffindor or Slytherin always won the house cup. 

Then again, Gryffindor and Slytherin were the only ones who actually cared about the house cup. Well, Holly didn’t know about the Ravenclaws for sure, but she got that impression from the Ravenclaws she knew. 

As for Hufflepuff, her prefect had told all the first years that Hufflepuff almost never won the Cup and that trying to get points was a waste of time anyway because the House Cup meant nothing in the long run. 

Of course some Hufflepuffs still wanted to win, but Holly was rather in agreement with her prefect. Winning the house cup had nothing to do with anything that meant anything. Still, she cheered when Gryffindor won because she knew at least James and Sirius cared about the Cup, and she was happy for them. 

After the feast there wasn’t much to do except pack. Soon enough they were rowed back across the lake and shepherded on to the Hogwarts Express, going back to King’s Cross Station. 

It was a much noisier ride this time, since she was in a compartment with four boys instead of one. They were all a little more exuberant than usual. Holly got the feeling they were trying to squeeze out every last minute together, knowing they weren’t going to be together again for two months. 

It didn’t sound that long when she thought of the number, but imagining actually being away from her friends for two months made it feel like forever. She hoped Sirius would be okay. She hoped Remus would be okay. Well, she hoped all of them would be okay, but she worried the most about those two. 

“Holly!” Sirius poked her shoulder. 

Holly shook her head. “What? Sorry.” 

“I was just saying, we’ll all write letters, right?” 

“Oh, of course!” Holly nodded. 

“Once a week—at least,” Sirius said. “Otherwise I don’t know how I’ll survive the summer.” 

“Of course!” Holly repeated. “I’ll have lots of free time. And you know I always have things to talk about.” 

They all nodded, James raising his eyebrows as he did so. Holly did talk a lot, but she knew he was joking. 

“We’ll be back on this train soon enough,” Holly promised. “I’m sure the summer will fly by.” 

“I really hope so,” Sirius muttered. 

It felt like only a few minutes had passed by the time they pulled in to Kings Cross Station. Holly’s parents were already waiting on the platform but Holly still took an extra long time to say goodbye to her friends. She continued to wave to them even as she was walking away with her parents. But they went back through the brick wall and Holly couldn’t see them anymore. Still, she kept looking over her shoulder, hoping to catch one last glimpse of them. 

Holly’s father grinned. “I take it you’re already looking forward to the summer being over.” 

Holly looked a little guilty. “It’s not that I don’t like being with you…”

“We understand.” Holly’s mother put her hand on Holly’s shoulder. “We’re so glad you finally found your friends.”


	6. Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the summer after year one. Holly celebrates her 12th birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this one right now because it's really short. It's supposed to be more like an interlude between years but I don't want to tack it on to the end or beginning of a different chapter because I think that would be weird. So, anyway, here it is.

Summer, Year One: 

Holly sent a letter to each of her friends every week, as she had promised. Holly didn’t do anything very interesting over the summer, but she wrote regardless. Her friends wrote to her much less frequently. At first Holly thought maybe she was annoying them with all of her letters, but whenever they did write, they expressed happiness at having received her previous letters. 

The summer passed quickly, as she had expected. Soon enough, it was July, which meant it was her birthday. She couldn’t remember if she’d told her friends when her birthday was, so she wasn’t expecting to get anything from them. As a rule, Holly expected almost nothing from everyone else, while she expected quite a lot from herself. So she was very much surprised when she woke up on the morning of her twelfth birthday to an owl flitting angrily outside her window. 

She opened the window. The owl dropped something onto her bed (which was right below the window) and then it disdainfully left. The item it had delivered was a package wrapped in brown paper. A wobbly ‘happy birthday’ was sketched on the outside. Holly opened it curiously. Inside were a much better wrapped package and a letter. A scan of the letter told her it was from James.

She had told them after all, and they had remembered, which was quite a feat for four adolescent boys. Of course, Holly wouldn’t have though the last part, but it was true. She assumed that if James remembered, they would all remember, because James was the least likely to remember, in her opinion. Now that she thought about it maybe Sirius was the least likely to remember. But that wasn’t important. 

Holly liked to get presents, but she didn’t take offence if people didn’t give her presents, or forgot her birthday. Holly gave presents to pretty much every person she’d ever met. In her mind, they were a material way to show someone how much you loved them, and she loved almost everyone very much. But her parents had been sure to explain to her that people expressed their love in different ways, so she knew that even if someone didn’t get her gifts, it didn’t mean they cared about her any less. And Holly was not in any way vindictive, so she would never hold it against someone. 

She ripped open the wrapping paper on the package, but before she could look inside, a second owl swooped through the window. This one dropped the bag it was carrying and proceeded to perch on one of the bedposts. 

“Thank you,” Holly said to the owl. There was no sign that it had understood what she said. 

Two more owls swooped in, almost simultaneously. Holly was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. One of them just had a letter so she opened that one first. It was from Sirius. Most of it was complaining about his parents, which was usually what he wrote about. But he ended the letter by saying that it was due to his parents that he couldn’t send her present, and that he would give it to her when she got back to school. 

Holly wrote a short note saying thank you for the birthday wishes and that she really didn’t want him to go to any trouble. She sent that note back with the owl that had delivered it. 

The other two presents (from Peter and Remus respectively) were books. She opened them before the one James had sent her because she wanted to send the owls back with thank you notes. Remus had sent her a book about the medicinal uses of various plants. Peter’s was a book about magical plants, which Holly was very excited about. She didn’t have any books about magical plants, and although she had started Herbology, they hadn’t learned about very many plants in her first year. She sent the owls off, thanking Peter and Remus very much for the gifts. 

She finally went back to James’s gift. Reading over the letter more carefully, she saw that he’d said it was something that reminded him of her. Holly had no idea what that meant, so she started to open the present. There were about three layers of wrapping, but inside the final layer of tissue paper was a hairclip. It was silver and in the shape of a holly leaf. Holly loved it immediately.

She finished James’s letter. In postscript he told her that his mother had helped pick it out. She wasn’t surprised, as it was rather too nice of a gift for James to pick himself. The wrapping was also much neater than she had thought James was capable of. 

She borrowed the family owl to send a thank you note back. 

Lily also sent her a gift, although it arrived a few days after her birthday because it was sent by normal post. It was a packet of seeds, which Holly planted almost immediately after they arrived.

Holly was a little bit surprised that her friends had gotten her such nice things. After all, she’d met them less than a year ago. But perhaps seeing them almost every day had brought them closer than they would have been if they saw each other every weekend, or some arrangement like that.

Regardless, Holly was very excited to go back to school. She had so many things to catch up on with all of them, and it was hard to express everything through letters. Just one more month and she’d be back at Hogwarts, a place she was quickly growing to love just as much as her real home.


	7. Back to Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the start of Year Two at Hogwarts. Holly sees her friends again and their second year is under way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I said I would update every week and then I never did that lol. Every time I try to edit my work I feel like it's not good anymore but I'm trying to just publish it anyway. My summaries of the chapters are really bad since in some of them literally nothing really happens so I never know how to describe them. Also my chapter titles I just come up with on the spot since I never named the chapters when I wrote them. This note is just a lot of things that I don't have to explain but I felt like I had to so sorry about that but I'm leaving it bc that's just who I am. Anyway, bye, hope you enjoy!

Year Two—Holly

Chapter One: 

Holly was on the platform with her parents. She was pretty sure her friends were already on the train, because she didn’t see them and she was a little bit late. Holly had left her hairclip at home, so they’d had to drive back to get it, and then when Holly got out of the car, Bella had almost run away. 

Bella was Holly’s kitten. Her parents had given Bella to her for her birthday, so Holly could have a pet at Hogwarts. Holly was very excited about that, and she thought that Bella would highly enjoy Hogwarts. 

Holly waved goodbye to her parents and ran up the steps to the door of one of the cars. She was carrying her luggage with both hands, so Bella was perched on her shoulder. 

It didn’t take her that long to find the compartment her friends were in. She could hear their voices when she was still on the other side of the door. She slid the compartment door open, a huge smile on her face. 

“Holly!” James said. “You’re here.” 

Holly dropped her luggage and ran to hug all of them. Bella jumped off her shoulder and on to one of the seats.

“Who’s this?” Sirius asked as Bella climbed into his lap.

Holly sat down across from him, in between Remus and Peter. “Oh, that’s Bella. Well, I really named her Belladonna since that’s a name for Deadly Nightshade, and she’s a black cat. But Belladonna is kind of long, so I just call her Bella. My parents gave her to me for my birthday so I could have a pet at school.” 

“That’s nice,” Remus said. 

“Oh, speaking of your birthday, I have your present,” Sirius said. He went to his trunk and started rifling through it. “I had to hide it from my parents,” he explained. “They would have noticed if I sent something and then they would have asked all sorts of questions so I thought I’d be better off giving it to you in person.” 

“Well, thanks for getting me something. You know you didn’t have to.” She looked around. “None of you had to get me anything.” 

James laughed. “We wouldn’t have gotten you anything if we hadn’t wanted to.” 

“Thanks,” Holly said. 

Sirius finally found what he was looking for, tossing a package wrapped in white paper to Holly. She caught it, sort of looking at the others as she did. “Should I open it now?” she asked. She’d opened all the other presents by herself, so she didn’t know if Sirius would want her to open his gift in front of everyone. 

But they all nodded, so Holly tore open the wrapping paper. Inside was a sort of pin. It was shaped like a shield and had some sort of markings on it. 

“It’s the Black family crest,” Sirius said. “My parents gave that pin to me so I could keep the family close at all times, or something like that. You don’t have to keep it if you don’t want, but I thought maybe you would like the design.” 

“I do,” Holly said. “What does this mean?” She pointed to the words at the bottom. 

“Always pure,” Sirius said. “It’s in French. Kind of sums up my family’s opinions nicely.” 

Holly made a face. “Sorry. But it is a cool crest.” 

“Oh yeah, if it was someone else’s crest I’d love it,” Sirius said. 

“Anyway, thanks,” Holly said. “I love it.” She put the pin in the pocket of her sweater. 

Bella had made her way onto the floor by now, so Holly picked her up and put her in her lap, and then she launched into a bunch of questions about the boys’ summers. She asked them about how their summers had been, what kind of things they’d done, if they were excited to go back to school, and the like. Her questions went on pretty much until the train pulled to a stop. She would probably have continued, but they had to get out of the train, and they were going a different way than they had their first year, which distracted her. 

They followed the rest of the returning students to an area near the train where there were a number of carriages. The carriages weren’t being pulled by anything. At first Holly thought they simply hadn’t been hooked up to anything yet, but then she saw one of the already full carriages taking off into the sky. 

Holly gasped. “Are the carriages magical?” 

Remus shook his head. “I read about this. The carriages are pulled by thestrals. Apparently you can’t see them unless you’ve witnessed death.”

Holly grimaced. “Well, I hope I never see them, then.” 

Remus nodded. 

The five of them piled into one carriage. After a few minutes, their carriage rose into the air. Holly leaned out of the window, watching the other carriages getting smaller below them. They weren’t that far up in the sky, but it was enough to give Holly the sensation of flying. 

She loved the idea of flying, but the only way to fly she’d learned so far was on a broom, and brooms and her didn’t go together very well. Holly had read about magical creatures that could fly, although thestrals weren’t among the ones in the book she’d read. But she though maybe someday she’d be able to fly like that. 

The carriages took about as long as the boats to get them to the castle. They landed outside the castle and went straight to the Great Hall for the welcome feast. There Holly had to say farewell to her friends as she went to sit at the Hufflepuff table. 

Holly talked to her Hufflepuff friends, who she hadn’t caught up with since the end of first year. It was nice to hear what they’d been up to over the summer. She also wanted to catch up with Lily. Holly had written a few letters to Lily, but not nearly as many as she’d written to the boys. There were also her Ravenclaw friends that she’d met in Herbology class. And then there was the one Slytherin girl who’d actually talked to Holly in their Transfiguration class. There were so many people to talk to, but Holly wanted to talk to them all. 

The first years filed through the door. Had it really only been a year since she had stood in the same place? There were fewer children than the year before. Holly knew that even though Hogwarts was supposed to be a safe place, many parents were afraid to send their children away. She knew about the war that was going on, of course. Her parents tried not to talk about it when she was around. She knew they didn’t want to scare her, because her father was a Muggle and there were people who didn’t like that. But news about the war was all around, so she’d found out about it anyway. 

She didn’t know all the details, but she did know there was someone bad who wanted to get rid of Muggles and Muggle-borns because he didn’t like them. Holly didn’t approve of that for a number of reasons. But there were other people fighting against this man, and she was sure they would win, because they were on the right side, after all, and people who were good always won. 

The first years were sorted, and the feast finally commenced. The food was wonderful, as always. Still, Holly was happy when it was over. She was feeling tired and she really wanted to lie down. She had a different room this year but the same roommates. They talked for a little bit, and then Holly went to sleep. Bella curled up at the foot of her bed. 

Classes started the next day. Holly was excited for this year, especially because she didn’t have to take flying class anymore. She was also really looking forward to learning about more plants in Herbology. She hoped they would talk about some of the plants she’d read about it the book that Peter had given her. 

However, Holly wasn’t looking forward to all of her classes. She had Potions with the Slytherins, which at least meant she would see her Slytherin friend. It also meant she would have to see Severus, though, and she didn’t really want to interact with him. It would be fine if he just ignored her, but he always had to make a point of it when she got things wrong—or at least that was how he’d been in her Transfiguration class. He always acted like he was just trying to help her, especially when she said it hurt her feelings. At least it was only one class. 

This year she had Transfiguration with her friends. She quickly saw why Sirius had been failing the class the year before. He and James were always talking, or throwing notes at each other (when Professor McGonagall moved them away from each other), or basically doing anything other than paying attention. 

Sometimes if Holly sat in between them she could get them to pay attention. This fact resulted in McGonagall moving her between them almost every class. Of course, sometimes it worked the other way around, and the two of them distracted Holly. McGonagall pretty much gave up when it got to that point. Although her version of giving up was giving them a stern look every other sentence of her lecture. 

They were studying for Transfiguration in the library. Really, Holly was trying to explain everything they’d learned so far to Sirius and James without attracting the attention of Madam Pince. Peter was trying to help, but Remus was working on something else entirely. 

“Remus, do you understand this?” Holly asked. “I wasn’t paying attention during this part either.” 

Remus looked up from the book he was reading. “Sorry, what are you talking about?” 

Holly started to show him the sentence in her notes. 

“What are you doing anyway?” James asked. 

“Oh, I’m just looking at some options for classes next year. We get to pick some electives, remember?” 

Sirius scoffed. “Yeah, but not until the end of the year. It’s only the second week of school.” 

Remus looked back at his book. “It’s never too early to start preparing.” 

“What are you thinking about taking?” Holly asked. 

“Arithmancy sounds cool. Or maybe Divination, or Study of Ancient Runes. Most of them sound interesting, but I guess I can’t take them all.” 

“If anyone would try, it would be you.” James laughed. 

“The only one I really know anything about is Care of Magical Creatures,” Holly said. “But I know I want to take that class. I think I’m just going to take the two required electives.” 

“That’s probably what I’ll do,” Sirius said. “I already have too many classes to keep track of.” 

James groaned. “I don’t know why they make us take other classes. The ones we already have to take are boring enough.” 

“I think that’s the point,” Holly said. “Maybe you’ll be more interested in one of the electives.” 

“Maybe,” James said. He leaned over and looked at the book Remus was reading. “I mean Divination sounds easy, at least. Or maybe Muggle Studies. I don’t think that would be too hard either.” 

Holly rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t pick something because you think it’s easy. You should pick something you like. Maybe it could help you figure out what you want to do when you graduate.” 

James tipped his chair back. “I’ll keep that in mind.” 

“Well, anyway, I guess we should get back to Transfiguration,” Holly said, opening her notes again. 

“Yeah, I don’t want to fail Transfiguration again,” Sirius said. 

Remus raised an eyebrow. “If you just paid attention in class you wouldn’t have any problem.” 

“Maybe I don’t want to pay attention in class,” Sirius said. He leaned over closer to Remus. They started arguing, attracting Madam Pince, who yelled at them to get out of the library. 

Holly sighed. They were never going to get any work done.


End file.
